Medical procedures have evolved over time into very efficient and well-choreographed routines, often using pre-packaged surgical kits containing all instruments and equipment needed for the particular procedure at hand. However, these routines often involve numerous medical personnel working with a litany of different tools and pieces of equipment, often times in a relatively small or cramped space. This is true whether the procedure is being performed in a clinical setting or in a high-tech operating room. In such procedures and environments, one of the most difficult things to do is track all tools, equipment or items being used during the procedure to make sure all are accounted for at the end of the procedure and that none are left where they shouldn't be left.
Conventional systems exist to track various items throughout a medical procedure, but all have their own shortcomings. For example, smart sponge systems exist that track how many sponges have been used during a procedure, how many have been returned or discarded, and how many remain out and unaccounted for. Often these systems are blind systems that simply note when an item is unaccounted for and require medical personnel to use equipment, such as scanners to scan items being checked-out or used, and then items, such as wands with integral antenna, to waive over a medical procedure area (e.g., over a patient, over surrounding patient support surfaces (like bedding, gurneys, tables, etc.), surrounding equipment, personnel, etc.) to locate the unaccounted for item. This takes up valuable time and does not provide the medical personnel with any additional information that would be helpful in locating the unaccounted for item.
Often times, these systems are also limited to a particular item and/or only track a small portion of a medical procedure area. For example, some smart sponge systems consist of a cart that includes a waste receptacle or bucket. Such systems limit their product tracking to sponges alone and ignore the numerous other items utilized during a procedure (e.g., scalpels, scissors, tongs, gauze, mesh, etc.). They also only track what is checked out and what is returned to the receptacle and do not track the surrounding procedure area. As mentioned above, they provide an antenna wand to search the surrounding procedure area that is not being tracked, but that requires medical personnel to perform additional tasks and is different from actually tracking a procedure area.
Some conventional systems go beyond tracking sponges, but these systems often require medical personnel to apply machine readable labels on all items that are to be tracked, which is again labor intensive and adds more work for medical personnel, rather than reduces the steps they have to perform so they can focus on the procedure at hand and do so efficiently to make the best use of what often is very expensive high-tech operating room time. These systems often include interrogators that communicate with a base command unit to track a location of an object that has been marked with a machine readable label so that the item can be tracked. Less intelligent versions of such systems are also employed that simply use metal detection technology to detect if any item has been left behind in sensitive areas.
Even in instances where medical kits are provided with pre-marked or pre-labeled items so that they can be tracked easier, these systems limit the tracking to those items in the kit and not additional items that may need to be employed during a procedure. In such systems, the focus is again on tracking a limited number of items and the procedural area, and again, the system operates blind either simply notifying personnel of a missing item or requiring personnel to scan surrounding area to locate the missing item.
Another problem associated with conventional systems is that they often rely too heavily on computer readable indicia that can only be detected by the electronic equipment used by the medical personnel. This precludes the medical personnel from being able to do their own secondary check for redundancy purposes and can leave medical personnel feeling concerned after a procedure is concluded because they do not have their own way to independently verify or confirm instrument tracking was complete.
Accordingly, it has been determined that a need exists for systems, methods and apparatus for improving medical procedures and medical procedure management, and, more particularly, to systems, methods and apparatus for tracking medical instruments throughout a procedure and assisting medical personnel throughout the procedure or at least at the conclusion of the procedure.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale or to include all features, options or attachments. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.
Similar features shown in the different embodiments illustrated in the figures above share similar reference numbers. Each element has a three digit reference number, with the first digit representing the embodiment number and the last two digits representing the component. Other than the differences explicitly described and/or shown, elements with corresponding elements are understood to be substantially similar.